3:54 PM, August 8, 2012

Citizens from across Michigan deliver more 200,000 signed petitions to the Department of State Bureau of Elections to repeal the Emergency Manager outside the Richard H. Austin State Office Building in Lansing, Mich., on Wednesday, Feb., 29, 2012. / ANDRE J. JACKSON/Detroit Free Press

LANSING – A referendum on Michigan’s controversial emergency manager law was approved for the Nov. 6 ballot this afternoon by a state elections panel, which had no choice after being ordered to act last week by the Supreme Court.

Approval by the Board of State Canvassers, which had previously rejected the proposal, suspends the law until the popular vote is taken.

Supporters of repealing the law, who collected petition signatures to force the vote then sued when denied by the canvassers the first time around, broke out in cheers after the measure was approved during a brief session of the board at the state Capitol.

The immediate effect of the suspension remains unclear, however.

Outside the hearing, representatives of the group Stand Up For Democracy said they adamantly disagree with Attorney General Bill Schuette that an earlier version of the emergency manager law is automatically reinstated. Officials in the administration of Gov. Rick Snyder said they plan to use the old law to re-appoint managers in Benton Harbor, Ecorse, Pontiac and the Detroit and Highland Park schools who have been acting under the suspended law.

In Flint, a new manager is expected to be named, also under the older version of the law.

But Herb Sanders, an attorney for Stand Up, said the governor has no authority to appoint emergency managers under the old law because it was repealed by the (now suspended) new law.

“Michigan law is clear. When something is repealed it’s repealed,” Sanders said.

Robert Davis, an employee of the public sector union AFSCME and Highland Park School Board member, attended today’s meeting and said he has sent a letter to Highland Park Emergency Manager Joyce Parker asking her to relinquish the seat by midnight. If Parker declines, Davis said he may file a new lawsuit.

Following the certification of the referendum, the Detroit Federation of Teachers, Detroit Association of Educational Office Employees, and Detroit Federation of Paraprofessionals delivered formal demands that Roy Roberts negotiate contracts.

Roberts was appointed emergency manager for DPS but now becomes emergency financial manager until the voters decide on the law, according to the state attorney general’s office.

Roberts imposed a contract on the teachers on July 1 and imposed 10% wage cuts on other employees. The decisions by emergency managers to date should stand, the state says. However, the attorney general’s opinions are not binding over local districts.

The unions maintain that until voters decide, Roberts is an emergency financial manager and as such cannot impose contracts, and therefore Roberts must negotiate.

School is supposed to begin on Sept. 4, and teachers union members have not ruled out a strike.

“The Supreme Court and Board of Canvassers have spoken,” said Keith Johnson, President of the Detroit Federation of Teachers. “We’re prepared to sit down with Roy S. Roberts tomorrow morning to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement. School starts in less than a month, it’s time to get to work.”